Enlargement will strengthen the small member states as a group. At present the European Union consists of five larger and ten smaller member states. After enlargement there will be seven larger and 19 smaller member states, with the Netherlands somewhere in the middle. The relative weighting of member states voting powers in the enlarging EU will continue to favour heavily the smaller member states. For example, Ireland with a population of about 4 million people has three votes on the Council of Ministers while Germany with a population of 82 million people has ten votes.